Meet our new Resident Priest Fr. Jozef Krajnak

Fr. Josef was born to dedicated Roman Catholic parents on the feast day of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1963 in Slovakia in Eastern Europe. He is the third of nine children that also consist of a sister who is a Franciscan nun and a brother who has accepted the call of Christ by joining the Society of the Divine Word.

Finding inspiration from his devoted Catholic parents specially his father who helped and cared for the sick of their village, he entered the seminary around 1982 to 1983. He started his philosophical, spiritual and theological formation by joining the Salesians of Don Bosco, a congregation founded by St. John Bosco. The Salesians were fully supportive of his vocation despite the harsh realities of the communist persecution that pervades in Slovakia during that time. He was ordained on June 8, 1991 at the Slovak National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrow in Sastin -Straze.

He served in Slovakia for four years and went to Rome for two years of studies. He served as a missionary in Venezuela for two years. In the United States of America New York and New Jersey he served as hospital chaplain and in different parishes for a total 20 years. In 2007 he received his doctorate in Pastoral Theology. Last year he served as a Parochial Vicar at St. Stephen Parish in Kearny, NJ. At our parish he will be assigned as chaplain for nearby Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital as well as the primary adviser for the Hispanic community in our parish.